


Let’s Play Sburb: Commoner Cycle Modstravaganza

by NonPlayerCharacter



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Let's Play
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-21 23:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NonPlayerCharacter/pseuds/NonPlayerCharacter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Join GregariousMastication as he stumbles through a questionably modded, six-character game of Sburb, complete with the type of ridiculous, self-imposed goals that any Sburb veteran should love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let’s Play Sburb: Commoner Cycle Modstravaganza

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sburb Character Creation Guide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/211975) by [Xalrath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xalrath/pseuds/Xalrath). 



> Many thanks to Xalrath for writing his amazing guide and inspiring me to write this.

I’m going to preface this by saying two things.

Firstly, I’ve never done a Let’s Play before. Let’s put that fact on the table where everybody can see it. This’ll probably sound a little stream-of-consciousness and improvised, and that’s because it totally is. I also know that if you don’t already know about Sburb, this LP will be about as comprehensible as the Zodiac letters. I apologize for both of those hurdles, but I still have the best of hopes for it.

(If you’re really interested in Sburb, I suggest reading TentacleTherapist’s guide on GameFaqs, as, while stupidly verbose, it’s still, in my humble opinion, one of the better guides out there. Failing that, feel free to chat me up on PesterChum, and I’ll give you a more first-hand explanation, as I can. Still, I’m no expert, hence my recommendation of the guide.)

Secondly, before anyone asks, I am **NOT** including AH’s famous Sgrub Mod, nor his Double Universe Reacharound Mod. Yes, I know, _but we love trolls, GregariousMastication, how could you deny us our hyper-complex human/alien Shipping Matrix and transuniversal shenanigans?_ Yes, I know that AH’s _Homestuck_ LP did more to popularize Sburb than anything else ever and it is the greatest thing and bluh bluh huge fan.

I respect AH massively for going where no one has gone before in the world of Sburb for both modding and game logs. However, I think this’ll be challenging enough (for me, anyway) without having to worry about First Guardians or Weird Time Shit beyond anything a standard Time-Aspect character brings with him or her.

In truth, I actually tried using the Sgrub and Double Universe Reacharound Mods with the mod pack I’m planning to use, and it resulted in the following glitches:

> •Each prototyped item counting as [characternumber] prototypes. Meaning that, for the six character game I’m planning, I would end up with 36 prototypings, in sets of six duplicates.  
> •Additionally, as a kicker for the above, the difficulty of entry increases as though you had actually gotten [characternumber] characters into the medium (capping, of course, at the normal maximum of 20 characters). Even in my six human/four troll test double-session, I only entered two humans before Ye Olde Death By Meteors took care of the other four.  
> •Instant God Tier revival of any and all dead characters (even those killed by meteors, WTF?), complete with transportation to the Battlefield.  
> •A character’s house made entirely of harlequins, leading to an inevitable Noirjacked session.  
> •A character’s house made entirely of First Guardians. Yes, really. I’m not even touching this one.  
> •A duplicate Black Queen’s Ring which functioned mutually with the original (rather than exclusively, as when a Carapace possesses both the Black King’s Scepter and Black Queen’s Ring), because obviously a twelve-prototyped (a harlequin wall section and a First Guardian ceiling fan, each duplicated six times) Jack Noir wasn’t fucking deadly enough.  
> •One of the humans having translucent skin. This one just freaked me the fuck out. Nothing else to say about it.  
> 

Most delightfully of all, this is by no means a comprehensive list. It merely contains the most interesting and blatant bugs I encountered. Frankly, I’m just glad the unholy combination of mods didn’t crash Sburb, set my computer on fire, and steal my wallet before I realized that any further testing would be stupid and pointless.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me introduce myself. I’m GregariousMastication, but feel free to call me GM for short (or Greg or Mast, I’ve had weirder nicknames). I didn’t get Sburb for over a year after its release, but I’ve beaten it twelve times on Default difficulty (“easy mode,” if you must call it that), and twice on Realistic (“hard mode”). I’ve never attempted Nightmare mode, nor do I intend to. Call me a noob and a spoilsport, but exploiting the unspeakable brokenness of a Heir of Time/Knight of Void/Witch of Light/Bard of Space quartet to beat a game mode apparently designed to be unbeatable isn’t my idea of fun, and I lack the obsessive dedication needed to learn how to win Nightmare mode with the various gimmick builds created to scrape out a victory by twisting the game engine until it cries uncle.

Personal ranting about Nightmare Mode aside, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. As advertised in the title, I’ll be using a few mods, on top of the basic source code.

Firstly, and most importantly, I’m using TyrannicallyAwesome’s Commoner Cycle Mod. This adds seven new classes to the existing eleven of Sburb, five in the titular cycle, plus a pair of linking classes (in the same way that the Bard links the Royal Cycle and the Wyld Cycle; read CoruscatingGreen’s Sburban Mythology faq for more information). For fun (of the terrible and masochistic type), I haven’t read up in great detail on his descriptions of the new classes, so hopefully we’ll get a few neat surprises. I did skim enough to know their names, however: Smith, Guard, Chef, Sage (link to Wyld Cycle), Regent (link to Royal Cycle), Aspirant and Merchant.

Secondarily, I’ve installed J-J-Jammin’s Diversity Mod, not out of some sort of weird desire to be politically correct, but because if I’m going to be watching tiny, cartoony thirteen-year-olds run around on my screen for like eighty hours, I’d prefer them to be somewhat distinguishable beyond having different hair colors and outfits. That, and some of the accents are fucking hilarious (due respect to J-J-Jammin’, of course; getting like fifty people to do a reasonably diverse variety of believable accents for a then-fringe simulation/RPG was a motherfucking MIRACLE, and I really can’t play the game without them, now). Incidentally, this will also mean that none of the characters are ectobiologically related to each other.

Thirdly, I’m using CoruscatingGreen’s Revamped Shipping Plus Mod. Yeah, I know that a lot of people view the Shipping Matrix as more of a hinderance than an enjoyable part of the game, and some people even mod it out of existence. More power to them, I say. Personally, however, I feel that you have never truly laughed until you’ve seen a pair of characters tearfully reunite to the strains of “What is Love.”

Lastly, I snagged the latest version of ContinuousTolerance’s Bug Fix and Rebalance Mod, as I’d prefer to avoid accidentally telefragging my Time- or Space-Aspect on a misplaced house expansion or a random imp. Seriously, flavor mods aside, I’d strongly recommend this to any and all Sburb players out there. The dev team hasn’t fixed a lot of the lingering bugs, and I am constantly astounded by the fanbase’s ability to step up and fill the gap. The “Rebalance” part of the mod is reasonably minor, simply bringing most ridiculously broken class/aspect combos down from “makes the game cry like a baby” to merely “better than everyone else” (I’m looking at you, Heir of Time, and, to a lesser extent, Thief of Light and Knight of Void), as well as improving a bunch of the more boring or useless combinations.

Hmm. In hindsight, modstravaganza may have been a little bit of false advertising, but whatever. Onwards and upwards, as they say.

On top of the modding, I’ll be adding a couple of artificial goals to spice things up even further. First, I’ll be relying entirely on my Time-Aspect’s Weird Time Shit for game-rescuing purposes, maintaining exactly one fully up to date game save at a time. If I can’t WTS my way out of a problem, then it sticks around and I deal with it. Secondly, I’ll be doing a variant of GardenGnostic’s Total Party Survival Challenge, which I’m calling the Happily Ever After Challenge. In addition to the original challenge’s “keep all of your characters alive” criteria, I’m going to try to land each character a at least one potential, reciprocated romantic pairing (Interested or better on the Shipping Matrix for both characters), and at least three friends (Chummy or better on the Shipping Matrix) by the end of the game. And I’ll be playing on Realistic.

So, yes, I’ve pretty much drilled holes in the bottom of my boat before I even set sail, but hopefully it’ll be entertaining to watch it sink.

Aside from all of my modding and self-imposed goals, I’ll be doing a pretty standard randomized six-character game. The additional prototypes will make things a bit trickier, but I’ve won on Realistic with more. Given my artificial goal, having a few more characters is more important than the slight bump in difficulty from the extra prototypes.

Phew! That took a while, but now that I’ve explained myself, let’s meet the kids!

Name: George Godbey  
Gender: Male  
Interests: Astronomy, Cheesy Horror Movies, E-Sports, Juggling  
Title: Prince of Time  
Alignment: Derse  
Raws: Poor Mangrit and Gel Viscosity for a starting Prince. However, he has pretty damn good Imagination and Pulchritude, and the single highest Bounciness score I’ve ever seen on a starting character.  
Shipping Prospects: Oddly bereft of romantic interest in any other character, given that he could have his pick of the bunch with his high Bounciness and Pulchritude. However, he does have four other characters platonically involved with him at Chummy or higher: Audrey, Allison, Thomas, Joseph.  
GM’s Notes: While looking over the stats and the name I was thinking “well, sounds like a miniature English gentleman, if an incredibly cheerful one.” Joke’s on me. George is a half-Indian American citizen, fluent in English and Hindi. I’m reasonably confident that I’ve found my leader on the first go, given his platonic connections across the group and high Pulchritude. Plus, his high Bounciness will really help him soldier on when the Dead Georges start piling up. Honestly, I’d call this a really lucky first draw.

Name: Audrey Martin  
Gender: Female  
Interests: Soccer, Crochet, Fencing, Classic Board Games  
Title: Knight of Space  
Alignment: Prospit  
Raws: Good Lass-Sass, fantastic Gel Viscosity, decent Imagination, Pulchritude and Bounciness. Nothing unique, but extremely solid for a Knight.  
Shipping Prospects: Platonically, she’s pretty good: Close with George, Chummy with Allison and Thomas. Romantically, she’s considerably rockier: a secret Interested directed at Thomas (which, ironically, he secretly requites) and an unrequited Severe Crush on Allison.  
GM’s Notes: Another lucky draw, and another multilingual character: Audrey’s a black Québécois, fully fluent in both English and French. I’m a little worried about her Shipping issues, but with any luck, I’ll be able to figure things out well enough. Assuming she doesn’t self destruct from an Angst Overload, she’s going to make a totally kickass Knight, especially given the boost to her Bladekind proficiency from the Fencing interest.

Name: Allison Johansen  
Gender: Female  
Interests: Classic Board Games, Fantasy Movies and Literature, Martial Arts, Origami  
Title: Aspirant of Rage  
Alignment: Prospit  
Raws: Excellent Lass-Sass, high Gel Viscosity, okay Imagination, above-average Pulchritude, and very low Bounciness.  
Shipping Prospects: Okay, a little worrying, here. She’s Chummy with Audrey and George, but that’s it for platonic relationships. However, she has an unrequited Severe Crush on George.  
GM’s Notes: My luck is starting to run out, it seems. While it’s neat to see the first Commoner Cycle class, I don’t really know what the hell it does. I’ll get back to you guys when I read up on it a little bit. Even without knowing her class role, her questionable shipping situation, combined with her aspect and low Bounciness means that I’m stamping “HANDLE WITH CARE” right on her forehead. If I screw up, we might have a few Angst Overload-induced deaths. Anyway, Allison’s a European American, and speaks only English. Doesn’t look like that’ll be a problem, at least. She’s got two friendly interpreters available if I come up with a non-English-speaker.  
Update: Shit. Okay, apparently, Aspirant is basically a bizarro Heir class: starts with nothing, but instead of openly receiving power, the Aspirant has to fight tooth and claw for it every step along the way. For its challenges, instead of “Prove Yourself” and “Accept the Mantle,” it has “Seize Power” and “Cast Off Your Weakness,” with the theme being how far you’re willing to go (breaking rules, discarding friends, etc.) to gain the power you want. Better still, it can substitute for the Heir as a mandatory class, so I probably won’t see an Heir among the remaining characters. I’m extremely tempted to just go “fuck it” and turn Allison into a Little Miss Kharn the Betrayer, complete with powered armor and a chainaxe, but I’ll resist the urge, for now.

Name: Thomas Klug  
Gender: Male  
Interests: Theoretical Mathematics, Computer Programming, Soccer, Roleplaying Games  
Title: Mage of Chaos  
Alignment: Derse  
Raws: Low Mangrit and Gel Viscosity, astonishingly high Imagination, reasonable Pulchritude, good Bounciness. Yeah, he’s a Mage.  
Shipping Prospects: Solid platonic matrix: with Audrey, George, and Joseph all at Chummy and Ren at Close, he’s tied with George in sheer number of platonic connections. He’s Interested in both Audrey and Ren, but quiet about it.  
GM’s Notes: This guy has the rare, though not impossible, honor of having programmed Sburb in this particular game’s universe. I might get some use out of him that way, but I’m not as hopeful about his Chaos powers. Unless I get a good Light Aspect, he’ll probably have to take a secondary role. However, he is pretty multilingual: he speaks fluent German and passable English and French. Additionally, he write/type a bit of Japanese, likely from his relationship with Ren. He lives in Germany.

Name: Ren Tsukada  
Gender: Female  
Interests: Roleplaying Games, Abstract Art, Jazz/Blues Music, Botany  
Title: Maid of Heart  
Alignment: Derse  
Raws: Pretty decent Lass-Sass and Gel Viscosity, good Imagination, very high Pulchritude, lowish Bounciness. Standard Maid stuff, except for her Pulchritude.  
Shipping Prospects: Ren is, honestly, unpleasantly isolated. She’s Close with Thomas and Chummy with Joseph. The end. No romantic interests whatsoever.  
GM’s Notes: I literally let out a sigh of relief when I saw Ren’s title. It’ll take forever to get her up to a useful level, but, hopefully, I can use her Heart powers to keep the Shipping Matrix stable and fulfill my challenge. Even more importantly, if I can get her and Allison into a friendship (though I’lll settle for a romance, if the game feels like being a dick to me), then maybe I can keep the Aspirant of Rage from losing her shit when the chips are down. Thankfully, they won’t have any trouble communicating as, while Japanese by birth, Ren speaks both her native tongue and English with equal proficiency.

Name: Joseph Satyev  
Gender: Male  
Interests: Mystery Novels, Medicine, Cooking, Roleplaying Games  
Title: Guard of Blood  
Alignment: Prospit  
Raws: High Mangrit, high Gel Viscosity, low Pulchritude, average Imagination, reasonably high Bounciness. Nothing special, here.  
Shipping Prospects: Okay platonic connections: he has Ren, Thomas and George all at Chummy. He also has an unrequited Crush on George.  
GM’s Notes: Another Commoner Cycle class, and a Blood-aspect, too boot! Sweet! I read up on the Guard a little bit before posting, this time. It shares a lot of roles with the Knight, but fulfills those roles in a completely different manner: detecting, (de)buffing and defending rather than rushing after obvious enemies and showing them its stabs as the Knight would. However, TA’s rundown of the Mod doesn’t cover the interaction of aspect and class, I’m afraid, so I’ll just have to figure that out on my own. Russian-born, Joseph speaks Russian and English fluently.

Team Summary

Well, first of all, I’m a little surprised at the Diversity Mod. The last time I used it, it gave me three little chunks of characters, each of which couldn’t properly communicate with the other chunks due to language barriers. This gradually turned the Shipping Matrix into a gordian tangle of unexpressed feelings and angst. I was sorta hoping for the same thing here, so that I could untangle it again, but given the combination of classes and aspects I ended up with, I’m glad it didn’t happen.

Anyway, speaking of those combinations, let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of this team.

Team Members: Prince of Time, Knight of Space, Aspirant of Rage, Mage of Chaos, Maid of Heart, Guard of Bood

The Good   


> •Pretty good WTS from the Prince of Time  
> •Lots of heavy hitters: Knight of Space, Aspirant of Rage, Mage of Chaos  
> •Good hybrid classes: Prince of Time (total generalist), Maid of Heart (defensive/buffing), Guard of Blood (defensive/buffing?/debuffing?/healing?)

The Bad   


> •No Seer (of any sort) and no Servant of Time, so I’ll have to use WTS every time something goes wrong. I hope the Prince can keep it up.  
> •No Seer, Bard, Witch or buffing/debuffing Mage, so I’ll be short on wide-ranging buffs, especially given that our Space aspect is a Knight.  
> •No Sylph, Rogue, Thief or Void aspect, so sneaky bullshit will be at a premium.  
> •No Light aspect, so I’ll have to make my own luck. Additionally, this means that my Mage of Chaos won’t be able to really cut loose unless he’s all alone, and even then, I’ll have to be careful if I don’t want him killing himself.  
> •Plenty of Shipping Matrix silliness. We’ll deal with it as it comes.  
> •Allison Johansen. The Aspirant of Rage deserves her own bullet point, as she’s likely to be the strongest character by a long shot by the end of the game, at least in a straight up fight. However, she’s also a Rage aspect, has an extremely low score in the stat that determines how good you are at not losing your shit, and has few relationships that she can depend on for emotional support. In short, she’s a potentially rabid dog with a loose cannon on its head.

So, yeah, it could be worse, but it could also be a lot better. You know what I said earlier about drilling holes in the bottom of my boat? It’s still true! Let’s set sail and get bailing!

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know what makes me feel nerdier: that I decided to write a fictional Let's Play about a fictional computer game based on a webcomic, or that I really, really enjoyed writing it.
> 
> But whatever, it was fun. I hope ya'll enjoyed it, too!


End file.
